Government backs media regulation bill, AG says it will endanger freedom of the press

Highly controversial legislation that would give the government significant control over broadcast media regulation was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, meaning it will be backed by the coalition when it comes for its preliminary hearing in the Knesset plenum.

The legislation, advanced by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, would see the establishment of a new regulatory council with a majority of members chosen by the communications minister, which would have an array of authorities over broadcast media, including the ability to issue hefty fines.

Karhi, one of the most far-right members of the Likud party, has claimed that the law would increase competition in the media market and reduce costs for content consumers.

But shortly before the approval of the bill in the ministerial committee, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara stated in a legal position paper that it would enable “political interference in the work of broadcast bodies and endanger the free press in Israel.”

The bill will now be passed to the Knesset for its preliminary reading in the plenum, and if approved, will then move on to the committee process.

“The monopolies and advocates of centralization did everything they could to stop this process. They wanted to preserve the existing situation, where the public pays more, receives less, and is controlled by powerful media outlets with regulatory immunity,” said Karhi, following approval of his bill by the ministerial committee.

Microphones and video cameras of Israeli media outlets set up for press conference. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

But Baharav-Miara stated in her legal position paper, addressed to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who heads the ministerial committee, that the law should not be approved by the forum until concerns regarding the possible damage to freedom of the press in the legislation are addressed.

In her paper, the attorney general said the law gave rise to “real concern of severe harm to freedom of expression and freedom of the press, which are inseparable parts of the democratic character of the State of Israel,” and should therefore not be advanced in the Knesset in its current format.

Baharav-Miara criticized, in particular, the abolition by the new legislation of the current arrangements for broadcast news content providers, whereby the news outlet must be an independent company and news corporation, separate from the commercial television station on which it is broadcast.

This system, she wrote, was designed to ensure that broadcast news content remains unaffected by the commercial interests of the owners and directors of the commercial television channel, and to insulate it from political interference as well.

But Karhi’s new bill removes these barriers, and merely expresses the importance for news media to refrain from using their platform as a mouthpiece for the owners of the commercial channels, but without providing any structural guarantees that this requirement will be upheld.

The bill requires news stations to adopt a code of ethical standards, but the news stations themselves are responsible for drafting it and they are not enforceable, the attorney general wrote.

“The current proposal will not establish any minimal guarantees to ensure the reliability and professionalism of the news, the independence of these bodies, and their detachment from commercial or political considerations,” she wrote.

The 103 radio station studio. July 23, 2017. (Moshe Shai FLASH90)

Abandoning the current model of clear separation between commercial television stations and news corporations, while abandoning the need for enforceable news standards “makes the news network much more vulnerable to commercial and political influences,” wrote the attorney general, adding that these changes would “undermine the credibility and quality of the news and are likely disrupt and distort the mediation of reality to the public within the framework of the news, and undermine the principle of democratic participation.”

Karhi, in response, accused Baharav-Miara of “operating as a full political actor,” and said that the current regulatory framework was causing higher costs for content providers that they pass on to consumers.

“When you speak about ‘freedom of expression’ you are in practice backing organizations which are choking other voices, blocking competition and preventing true diversity,” Karhi stormed.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a liberal watchdog group, called the legislation another component of the government’s “regime coup,” and an attempt to take control of the press in Israel similar to the manner in which the current Hungarian government has hobbled independent media in that country.

“This is an exact copy of the Hungarian model for taking control of the media: establishing a political regulator under the control of the minister, abolishing the structural separation between news organizations and channel owners, and granting powers to impose heavy fines on media organizations,” said Attorney Uri Hess of the Movement for Quality Government.